Young and Restless/ Haiku Response

For the Young and the Restless performance at Hart House on Thursday, March 5, 2009, my performance, “Eric”, consisted of 12 haikus recollecting an experience with a man who fell in love with me, over the internet, based on my Asian-ness. I made and consumed rice, grain by grain, as a visual metaphor for his consumption of my Asian background. Now this performance all stemmed from and was inspired by one haiku, which he wrote after I asked him and everyone to “Write me a Haiku”. His haiku was incorporated with 11 of my own haikus recounting the events of our meeting and the development of our relationship.

Write me a Haiku: Responses

Art & Art History Graduate Exhibitions

Didactic-
First Exhibition: March 4-15 Opening Reception, Wednesday March 4, 5:30-7:30pm

Kora Bakier, Myra-Ann Boyle, Tricia Chiu, Claudia Ciornei, Ricardo Conto-Oro De Arco, Mallory Diaczun, Paige Haggett, Jenna Pyle, Johnson Ngo, Jaclyn Quaresma, Gurpreet Sehra, Shelley Williams

-Dialectic
Second Exhibition: March 19-29 Opening Reception, Wednesday March 18, 5:30-7:30pm

Roberto Alcazar, Leah Chariandy, Claire Danvy, Matt Hoffman, Shell Johnson, Drew Lesiuczok, Ryan Lord, Laura Moreau, Charlotte Rodon, Ashley Regimbal Kung, Nina Shewchuk, Conrad Tang, Nikole Villeda, Ariane Wieck

Blackwood Gallery
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road North,
Mississauga, Ontario
L5L 1C6
Canada

Tel: 905-828-3789
Fax: 905-569-4262

Hours:
Monday - Friday, 11 - 5pm
Sunday, 1 - 4pm
Closed Saturdays

University of Toronto Film Festival 2009

8:30PM:
Hart House Art Committee presents:
Rapport Report: The possibilities of community (87:00)

Curated by Tejpal Ajji (Adjunct Curator of Outreach, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery) and the Hart House Art
Committee’s Outreach Committee. This screening is organized by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in partnership
with the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Resources & Programs (University of Toronto),
and New College (University of Toronto). The JMB Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada
Council for the Arts.

2009 U of T Film Festival
The Debutante Ball (4:00)
Produced during a student focused, weekend long, collaborative video-making workshop organized by the
Hart House Film Board and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. Participants used Hart House as a film set to
evoke a sense of fantasy through costume and improvised stage design.
Project participants: Kristyna Balaban, Boglarka Uzoni, Mariuxi Zambrano, Leila Gajusingh, Susan Fairbairn,
David Leblanc, Chen Liu, and others.
Artist Oliver Husain led the workshop assisted by Dagny Thompson.

Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer Videos (29.00)

This program mines the world of on-campus queer identities, spaces, and ideas, and presents the works of
queer and transgender identified videomakers from the University of Toronto’s three campuses, and Ontario
College of Art & Design and other Canadians.

The Astronaut (5:15)
By Dagny Thompson
The artist recounts a childhood wish of becoming an astronaut. Dressed as such, Thompson walks through a
playground and attempts to drink coffee in a café, living out desires of expression however quietly.

Wing Machine (3:30)
By Hodgson and Moffat Productions - University of Toronto at St. George
It is Monday, chicken wing day, and “Mindy” prepares herself for a day to indulge in greasy fried and
sauced goodness.

Untitled (territory) (5:15)
By Ryan Lord - University of Toronto at Mississauga / Sheridan Institute of Technology
Lord applies red poster paint to his genitals then ‘tea bags’ a movie poster. This action suggests the hints of
violence which can characterize sexual gestures.

Taking Root (4:18)
By Hisayo Horie
Horie traces the melancholy of her migration to Canada through a metaphor of adaptation akin to plants.

This Is Me (3:13)
By Johnson Ngo - University of Toronto at Mississauga / Sheridan Institute of Technology
Ngo contests stereotypes while referring to voice-over dubbings of translated cinematic works.

Cake (8:00)
By Allen Huynh - Ontario College of Art & Design
Recited as a partner search profile, Huynh describes facets of his sexual identity. He intertwines
autobiographic details with the lives of former partners. The video’s unsettling green hue imbues it with
melancholy heightened by the confessional style of Huynh’s delivery.

Live Student Performances @ Sheridan

Part 1--Tuesday March 10
12:30-1:30, Annie Smith Arts Centre (Mezzanine)

Ryan Lord
Michelle Johnson
Johnson Ngo
Nina Shewchuk
Jessica Vallentin


Part 2--Thursday March 12
12:30-1:30, Sheridan Lecture Hall, B124

Kyleigh Buryta
Claire Danvy
Mallory Hazlett
Charlotte Rodon
Violetta Parra D'Moya
Nicole Villeda

Young and Restless - Performance Projects

Image right: Ila Kavanagh, performance, Hart House, University of Toronto, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
Image left: Risa Kusumoto, Japanese Cultural Lessons, performance, Hart House, University of Toronto, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

Performance Night: Thursday, March 5, 2009
Time: 7 pm - 10:30 pm
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, ON

In 2007, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery initiated a yearly performance art program dedicated to artists currently in or having recently graduated from art school/university. Now in its third year, Young and Restless is premised on creating a trans-institutional dialogue between young artists at this critical transitory period in their development. Curated by Tejpal S. Ajji (Adjunct Curator of Outreach), with the assistance of the Hart House Art Committee's Outreach sub-committee, the program was developed through meetings and studio visits held at the University of Toronto's three campuses (St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough), the University of Guelph, the Ontario College of Art & Design, and with recent graduates.

Using Hart House as the set for performative works, invited artists expand on their practices, presenting a new work developed for this event, situated in this unique, historical building. Completed after World War I by architect Henry Sproatt, and advocated by Vincent Massey, Hart House was initially sanctioned as a male-only environment, a decision overturned in 1972 (after co-ed lobbying begun in the 1950s). In light of this history, the building softly emits the many paradigmatic shifts of its development as a cultural centre. Though the building's exterior is fixed in neo-Gothic finery, the interior is routinely reworked, adjusted to host the needs of many student clubs, religious groups, lectures, and activities. It is in this milieu of rearrangement, and in the histories of gender division and humanistic desires, to the now convivial environment- these young artists are asked to intervene.

Young and Restless inserts itself in a history of student-focused initiatives, attempting to work between institutional boundaries, flooding the building with content experienced through the reworking of spaces. If in being young there comes a sense of restlessness, it is this optimistic and anxious energy that propels this project to investigate the early years of artistic development.

Artists: Allen Huynh, Neelam Kler, Johnson Ngo, Violeta Par De Moya, Petrina Ng, Mariuxi Zambrano

Curated by Tejpal S. Ajji, Adjunct Curator of Outreach (Justina M. Barnicke Gallery)


Program:

Johnson Ngo recently began writing and collecting haiku. The subject matter of this short stanza poem is often a reflection of his self-image. His interests lie in investigating cultural forms (such as Anime and haiku), which may be misread as representing a ‘Pan-Asian' identity.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:15 pm

Allen Huynh, mediating on the uncomfortable intimacies of being picked up at a bar, he engaged in a conversation with a gentleman who projected a series of stereotypes onto the artist. Taking the sexual descriptions from this conversation-including descriptions of smooth skin of a youthful body-Huynh's performance examines these articulations of his identity as a queer Vietnamese-Canadian.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:30 pm

Mariuxi Zambrano emigrated from Ecuador to the United States, where she found herself working ‘under the table'. Now residing in Canada, Zambrano considers the various informal work arrangements that have characterised her recent life: from waitressing in restaurants, to cleaning homes with a distant relative.
Space: Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 7:50 pm

Violeta Parra De Moya is currently writing a story on the life of her grandmother, now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Par De Moya's collection of stories trace her grandmother's life from Lebanon to Colombia, where she was abandoned by her father, her involvement in the Colombian Communist Party, and her sojourn in the USSR.
Space: Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:15 pm

Petrina Ng's work traces her maternal history from Hong Kong to the diasporic spaces of Vancouver, Toronto, and London, UK. Often using the kitchen as a site of convergence, Ng's work traces history, through meetings in such vernacular spaces. For this series, she considers the intimate relationship between her mother and the now deceased family dog-who which came to represent a childlike presence now gone from the home.
Space: Debates Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:00 pm - onwards

Neelam Kler investigates the histories of labour in her immediate family. Working closely with her mother, an expert seamstress, the artist acknowledges the generational shift in the conception of factory work.
Space: South Sitting Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:00 pm - onwards

As part of Young and Restless (2009), young curator and Chair of the Hart House Art Committee's Outreach sub-committee Bonny Poon, organized the presentation of two performative music projects.

The Element Choir is an improvising choir from Toronto led by vocalist Christine Duncan. The group works with both structured and non-structured elements, based primarily on a system of directional cues.
Space: Music Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 8:50 pm - 9:20 pm

AWESOME is a Toronto area noise band with an interest in Primitivism.
Space: Music Room, 2nd Floor
Time: 9:30 pm - 10:00 pm

This project was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the
Arts, the Hart House Art Committee, and New College (University of Toronto).

For information related to this program and other Gallery programming please contact:

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, ON
M5S 3H3
Canada

Tel: + 1 (416) 978-8398
Fax: + 1 (416) 978-8387
Email: jmb.gallery@utoronto.ca
Web: www.jmbgallery.ca

Gallery Hours
Monday to Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday to Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday to Sunday 1pm - 5pm

The Gallery is closed on statutory holidays.
The Gallery is wheelchair accessible.

Both/And: What is beyond multiculturalism?

Rice/Self-Portrait, Johnson Ngo, video (17 mins), 2008

Both/And: What is beyond multiculturalism?
Exhibition at University of Toronto Art Centre art lounge

From Wednesday, February 11 until March 3rd you will be able to experience first hand how very talented young artists answer this question. Both/And: What is beyond multiculturalism? is an exhibition organized by two University of Toronto student curators: Maria Campos and Yulia Kalinichenko with the guidance of Sunny Kerr, Student and Education Program Coordinator at UTAC.

This show at University of Toronto Art Centre in the students art lounge space investigates how technology, dislocation and globalization create particular forms of communication. There are representations of individuality and the social, mostly from self-reflexive points of view that articulate the artists' own social, cultural and racial backgrounds in relation to Toronto. The artists' statements are startling. You will find paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, prints, and an interactive installation. It is an exhibition worth of visiting.